Contemporary Approaches To World Languages And Cultures

The biennial Southeast Conference on Foreign Languages, Literatures, and Film (SCFLLF), supported by a generous grant from the College of Arts and Sciences at the University of South Florida and the administrative support of the USF Department of World Languages, convened for the 21st time on February 21-22, 2014. The conference, which has been held in various locations throughout Florida since 1983, featured 60 speakers from the US and abroad who shared their research on various topics related to literature, film, culture, language learning, and linguistics. The conference did not feature a specific theme in order to encourage the sharing of a wide array of topics, interests, investigations, and formats that stimulate productive conversations and discussions among divergent fields, languages, and historical periods, resulting in collaborations and connections that continue beyond the conference meeting. In the spirit of showcasing eclectic scholarship and fostering interdisciplinarity, the 21st SCFLLF featured 20 sessions that focused on cultural and linguistic output in languages as diverse as Arabic, Japanese, Chinese, French, Gaelic, German, Italian, Latin, Russian, and Spanish.

Building on a long tradition in German-language literature and culture, this volume focuses on contemporary engagements with ethical concerns in literary texts, essays, and films. There has been an "ethical turn" in the literature, culture, and theory of recent years. Questions of morality are urgent at a time of increasing global insecurities. Yet it is becoming ever more difficult to make ethical judgments in multicultural, relativist societies. The European economic meltdown has raised further ethical difficulties, widening the gap between rich and poor. Such divisions and difficulties heighten the widespread fear of "the other"in its various manifestations. And in the German context especially, the past and its representation offer ongoing moral challenges. These ethical concerns have found their way into recent German-language literature andculture in texts that deal with history and memory (Timm, Petzold, Schoch, Strubel); materiality (Krauß, Overath); gender (Berg, Schneider); age and generation (Moster, Pehnt, Schalansky); religion, especially Islam (Senocak, Kermani, Ruete); and nomadism (Tawada). The relationship between self and other; the connection between particular and general; the personal and political consequences of individuals' actions; and the potential, and danger, of representation itself are issues that are vital to the shaping of our future ethical landscapes, as this volume demonstrates. Contributors: Monika Albrecht, Angelika Baier, David N. Coury, Anna Ertel & Tilmann Köppe, Emily Jeremiah, Alasdair King, Frauke Matthes, Aine McMurtry, Gillian Pye, Kate Roy. Emily Jeremiah is Senior Lecturer in German at Royal Holloway, University of London. Frauke Matthes is Lecturer in German at the University ofEdinburgh.

This collection of essays highlights the great variety one finds in contemporary scholarly discourse in the fields of English and American studies and English linguistics in a broad and inclusive way. It is divided into thematically structured sections, the first two of which examine the motif of travelling and images of recollection in literary works, while the third and the fourth parts deal with male and female voices in narratives. Another chapter discusses visual and textual representations of history. The last two subsections focus on the rhetorical and theoretical questions of language. The pluralism of themes indicated in the book’s title can thus be regarded not as a limitation, but, rather, as evidence of its potential.

Language Policy and Planning in the Mediterranean World is a collection of the best papers presented at the MedLPLP conference held at the University of Cyprus in 2009, enriched with invited contributions on the same topic. The book presents a panorama of situations with countries such as France, Germany, Cyprus, Malta, Italy, Spain, Poland, Turkey, Greece, Bulgaria, Albania, Romania and Serbia. It explores various aspects of the weight and ecology of the Mediterranean languages, discusses LPP in the light of international law and the protection of human rights, bilingual education and foreign language acquisition policies. It also addresses the issue of feminization in a broad range of Mediterranean languages comparing French, Italian, Spanish, and, for the first time, Standard and Cypriot Greek. Finally, the book also discusses language revival and renovation policies, language planning in the public space, as well as cases of micro-language management. The volume is an excellent source of information for scholars and students of LPP interested in the synchrony and diachrony of Mediterranean languages, in aspects of LPP activity in various Mediterranean countries and in specific LPP processes involving several languages within the area.

This volume explores the relationship between language and culture while considering its implications for the teaching of modern foreign languages in higher education. Drawing on a comparative empirical study conducted at universities both in the UK and US, this text problematises the impacts of a separation of language and content in German degree programmes. Illustrating the need for a curriculum which fosters the development of intercultural competence and criticality, Parks reconceptualises established models of criticality (Barnett) and intercultural communicative competence (Byram). The chapters in this volume discuss a range of important topics including; language graduates with deep translingual and transcultural competence, observed differences and similarities between British and American universities and faculty and student voices: developing intercultural competence and criticality. Aimed at scholars with research interests in intercultural communication, language education and applied linguistics, this volume provides a thorough discussion for the ways in which modern language programmes in higher education can be improved. Additionally, those carrying out research in the fields of language teaching and language policy in higher education will find Developing Critical Cultural Awareness in Modern Languages to be of great relevance.

Pragmatics Pedagogy in English as an International Language aims to bring to light L2 pragmatics instruction and assessment in relation to English as an International Language (EIL). The chapters in this book deal with a range of pedagogically related topics, including the historical interface between L2 pragmatics and EIL, reconceptualization of pragmatic competence in EIL, intercultural dimension of pragmatics pedagogy in EIL, teacher pragmatic awareness of instruction in the context of EIL, pragmatics of politeness in EIL, pragmatic teaching materials for EIL pedagogy, teachers’ and scholars’ perceptions of pragmatics pedagogy in EIL, assessment and assessment criteria in EIL-aware pragmatics, and methods for research into pragmatics in EIL. This book is different from other books about both EIL pedagogy and pragmatics pedagogy. Exploring the interface between different dimensions of pragmatics pedagogy and EIL, it suggests instructional and assessment tasks for EIL-aware pedagogy and directions for research on EIL-based pragmatics pedagogy. Pragmatics Pedagogy in English as an International Language will be useful for a range of readers who have an interest in the pragmatics instruction and assessment of EIL as well as those whose main area of specialization is EIL but would like to know how EIL, with its rich conceptual and empirical background, can go beyond linguistic instruction to embrace the instruction of pragmatic competence.

How have fairy tales from around the world changed over the centuries? What do they tell us about different cultures and societies? Drawing together contributions from an international range of scholars in history, literature, and cultural studies, this volume uniquely examines creative applications of fairy tales in the twentieth and twenty-first centuries. It explores how the fairy tale has become a genre that flourishes on film, on TV, and in digital media, as well as in the older technologies of print, performance, and the visual arts. An essential resource for researchers, scholars and students of literature, history, the visual arts and cultural studies, this book explores such themes and topics as: forms of the marvelous, adaptation, gender and sexuality, humans and non-humans, monsters and the monstrous, spaces, socialization, and power. A Cultural History of Fairy Tales (6-volume set) A Cultural History of Fairy Tales in Antiquity is also available as a part of a 6-volume set, A Cultural History of Fairy Tales, tracing fairy tales from antiquity to the present day, available in print, or within a fully-searchable digital library accessible through institutions by annual subscription or on perpetual access (see www.bloomsburyculturalhistory.com). Individual volumes for academics and researchers interested in specific historical periods are also available digitally via www.bloomsburycollections.com.

Approaches to Monasticism in the Context of Christian Responses to Modern Culture is a study of how the values and practices of monasticism are being shaped by the shift to a cultural understanding of Christianity in modern times. The values and practices of traditional monasticism are contrasted with those of various expressions of new monasticism against the background of a multicultural and fluid social environment in an effort to find some reciprocal illumination. The study aims to describe monasticism in terms of authenticity and lived religion.